Question

Group Activity

–

What is Life?

Let's

assume you are a space explorer that is

visiting a new planet in a different solar

system. Write down five specific tests you

could perform to determine if something is

living or not. Assume money and time are no

object.

Answer 1

Life is an understanding of something to be living. It is quite hard to come with a precise definition because many definitions of life can be operational definitions. But we can define life but compare living and non-living ones .any science that deals with life processes of living beings like metabolism, reproduction, growth, etc.
tests to determine if something is living or not.
1. they will show movement - living organisms move on their own from place to place or at the same place move its parts or something. but still, we cannot consider movement as the basic test to define living because in case of plants they will not show actual movement if observed from outside. here we will consider other criteria for living nature.
2.they will respond to stimuli - all living organisms whether plants or animals will respond to external stimuli. this stimulus can be in any form, a touch, change in pressure, temperature or environmental stimuli.
3.at some point they will reproduce - all living organism show the process of reproduction to continue its existence in the form of new generation from time to time. because every living organism dies at a certain period and hence new organism reproduced from the previous ones take their place and continue life.
4. they should have an internal organization - all living organisms are made up of cells. it could be unicellular or multicellular. but the cell is the basic unit of life possessed by every living individual.
5. they show some kind of growth - by taking energy either the organism will increase in size or will divide to show its growth.